Yea… that treaty is definitely not equitable and needs to be renegotiated - but the plantiffs arguments aren’t really valid.

This treaty needs political pressure to fix but, legally, it is currently being obeyed by Canada.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Stefan Lorne Cochrane, a former chief and band councillor of Fisher River, would be the lead plaintiff, according to the statement of claim filed at the Manitoba Court of King’s Bench on Dec. 12.

In the suit, Fisher River claims the Crown breached its obligations under Treaty 5 by failing to regularly increase the $5 annuities to maintain their value at the time of the document’s 1875 signing.

There are 36 First Nation communities that make up Treaty 5, which spans about 260,000 square kilometres across northern and central Manitoba as well as small parts of eastern Saskatchewan and western Ontario, according to the suit.

The Crown entered into Treaty 5 with various Saulteaux and Swampy Cree First Nations in and around northern Manitoba in September 1875 with a promise to provide one-time and continuous supports in exchange for the use and occupation of their lands and resources, the suit says.

“Over the same period of time, the value of the land and resources claimed by Canada through Treaty 5 has grown astronomically, yielding billions of dollars in revenue for the benefit of the Crown and settlers,” the suit states.

The federal government promised Treaty 5 nations a level of monetary value each year and then contributed to the inflation that destroyed most if not all of it, which means it was required to increase the annuities to compensate for that difference, the suit claims.

The original article contains 668 words, the summary contains 230 words. Saved 66%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!